Cities and the Wealth of Nations

"Learned, iconoclastic and exciting...Jacobs' diagnosis of the decay of cities in an increasingly integrated world economy is on the mark."—New York Times Book Review

"Jacobs' book is inspired, idiosyncratic and personal...It is written with verve and humor; for a work of embattled theory, it is wonderfully concrete, and its leaps are breathtaking."—Los Angeles Times

"Not only comprehensible but entertaining...Like Mrs. Jacobs' other books, it offers a concrete approach to an abstract and elusive subject. That, all by itself, makes for an intoxicating experience."—New York Times

Richard J. Barnet

Jane Jacob's learned, iconoclastic and exciting study of the causes of economic stagnation and decline helps us look at familiar problems in new ways. By challenging ideas, schemes and pieties all across the political spectrum, ''Cities and the Wealth of Nations'' shows why so much of the familiar debate between the right and left is beside the point. . . . Although her subtitle, the ''Principles of Economic Life,'' suggests some fresh approaches to the crisis of the modern nation-state, she neither promises nor delivers any practical ideas for reorganizing the world economy. -- New York Times